Shafqat Hussain, convicted of killing a seven-year-old boy in Karachi in 2004. Later he was arrested and during his first interrogation admitted kidnapping and killing Umair, whose body was found in a plastic bag in a stream.

Shafqat Hussain later withdrew his confession, saying he had made it under duress, but the case came before an anti-terrorism court which sentenced him to death.

Shafqat Hussain had been due to face the noose on January 14 but the government halted the execution amid protests about his age, and ordered an investigation.

Shafqat Hussain’s case has triggered outrage in rights campaigners, who complain he did not get a fair trial and was only 15 at the time of the killing.